Self-Regulation and Metamotivation: Computational Mechanisms, Development, and Assessment

Young children’s motivation is a function of their needs, their expectations, and the incentives provided by the immediate environment. Later in childhood, they develop executive skills that enable them to control their motivational states, increasing or decreasing them when necessary, or keeping them stable even in an environment with changing incentives. These skills are based on metamotivational knowledge, that is, knowledge regarding one’s own moti­ vational functioning (e.g., what thoughts produce an increase or decrease in motivation, what environments contain effective personal incentives, etc.). Mischel’s experiments on self-regulation have provided interesting insights con­ cerning the development of strategies children use to control their own moti­ vation (Mischel, 1974; Mischel & Mischel, 1983). This research was confined, however, to two experimental paradigms (i.e., delay of gratification and re-sistance to temptation) that focused on molar behavior rather than informationprocessing mechanisms mediating cognitive performance. The important role self-regulatory (metamotivational) processes play for learning and cognitive functioning has been underestimated until now.